What Helps Against High Blood Pressure?

A high blood pressure can cause health problems. What can help to lower your blood pressure?

1. Helps lose weight against high blood pressure?

Hell yes. Subjects who lost an average of four kilos in a year were downgraded by 3 to 10 points and their negative pressure by 1 to 6 points.

“Losing weight is an important resource in this obesity period, especially the fat on the stomach causes problems, which produces hormones that increase blood pressure.” If the abdominal fat disappears, the blood pressure also decreases. “

2. Is relaxation good?

Possible. Relaxation exercises , meditation, deep abdominal breathing: there is careful evidence that these types of stress management techniques help lower blood pressure. In any case, the underpressure.

3. And eat less salt?

“That always works to lower blood pressure, even if it is only slightly increased,” says specialist Wilko Spiering. “This also applies if high blood pressure is already treated with medicines, because these drugs work less well if you use a lot of salt.”

If you eat 4 grams of salt less per day , the upper pressure is reduced by an average of 5 points and the negative pressure is 3 points. Wilko Spiering: “80 to 90 percent of Dutch people eat too much salt, the advice is a maximum of 6 grams of salt per day, and the World Health Organization recommends only 5 grams, which we eat on average about 9 to 10 grams every day. most of them are ‘hidden’ in food: you do not taste it, but it is there.

4. Is exercise good for your blood pressure?

Yes. Movement of the blood vessels in the long run more elastic and that helps to lower the blood pressure. In the short term, blood pressure with sports naturally goes up: the heart must pump harder when exercising. But in the long term the vessels will be in better condition. The top pressure drops by 5 to 8 points on average if you walk more than half an hour a day than you normally do. Or if you go cycling for an hour or go jogging three times a week.

5. Does smoking stop help?

Whether or not the blood pressure drops, has not been proven conclusively. That the damage to the heart, blood vessels, lungs and kidneys is limited, is certain.

6. Does it also help to drink less alcohol?

The relationship between alcohol and blood pressure is not entirely clear. High blood pressure seems to be more common in people who drink. But: some studies in patients with high blood pressure suggest that occasionally a glass of water will actually increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in them. Wilko Spiering: “One or two glasses of wine a day can be fine and sometimes even beneficial. If you drink four or five glasses a day, that will clearly increase your blood pressure.”

7. When are medicines needed?

If eating healthier and exercising more do not lower blood pressure. Furthermore, even with a severely elevated blood pressure: more than 180. And if you have (had) a cardiovascular disease and the blood pressure is 140 or higher.